Faculty Announcements

The Western Cares Food Drive runs until Monday, December 18.
Drop off your non-perishable food items, baby formula or diapers. Our donation box is located just outside the Centre for School Mental Health Office (Room 1154).
The campus drive is in conjunction with the city-wide Business Cares Food Drive and both support the London and Area Food Bank.
Thirty-eight per cent of the food bank’s clients are children. The food bank also supports more than 25 social service agencies in the London area.

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, was invited to present a talk entitled, 'Accessing Schooling under the Right to Education Act in India: results from a field study in Delhi', South Asian Studies Programme--Institute of South Asian Studies Joint Seminar, National University of Singapore.

The Western University Cares Campus Food Drive begins today. Until December 18, faculty, staff and students can drop off non-perishable food items, baby formula or diapers here at the Faculty in Room 1154.

The Teacher Education staff is most pleased to welcome Rebecca Horeth who started today as Program Coordinator (filling Katie Mentone’s role while she is on leave until October 2018).
Rebecca is a graduate of our B.Ed. program -- she impressed us as a Teacher Candidate and now comes to us with glowing recommendations from all with whom she has worked! We are excited to have her take on the Program Coordinator role where she will support Teacher Candidates, Specialty Area Coordinators, and community agencies/schools for the Alternative Field Experiences, as well as oversee the T2P (professional development) days.
Please join us in welcoming Rebecca!

Centre for School Mental Health and Mary J. Wright Research and Education Centre at Merrymount receive funding through the Ontario Local Poverty Reduction Fund for the MindUP for Young Children Project.

Lynn Dare and Elizabeth Nowicki from the Faculty of Education recently published an article Strategies for Inclusion: Learning from Students' Perspectives on Acceleration in Inclusive Education in the journal, Teaching and Teacher Education. Anyone who clicks the link before December 20 will be able to read the article on ScienceDirect for free. No sign up or registration is needed – just click and read! The number of copies is unlimited until December 20, 2017.

The Canadian Institute of Health Information and Ministry of Children and Youth Services, Ontario, are collaborating on the roll out of the interRAI Child and Youth suite of instruments with the goal of facilitating uptake in Ontario and across. Dr. Shannon Stewart has been instrumental in undertaking the research that establishes the psychometric properties of the interRAI and plays a leadership role in the international interRAI organization. Shannon, congratulations on your outstanding work on the very important instrument.

Please join us in welcoming Mr. Ian Deakin to the Faculty of Education’s, International Office. Ian is assuming the role of Manager, International Partnerships. As a senior leader with two decades of leadership experience, Ian has a deep and varied understanding of education in a variety of international contexts. Ian’s leadership and knowledge is essential as we look to increase our international enrollment, introduce the International Baccalaureate (IB), and further cultivate partnerships overseas.

Join students, faculty, staff and community members in celebrating diversity and exploring international opportunities, programs and themes. More than 60 cultural experiences, lectures, fairs, presentations and special events are planned on Western’s main campus and at Brescia, Huron and King’s. See the full schedule and event details at www.internationalweek.uwo.ca

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, was invited to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to share research on the private sector in education and low-fee private schooling. She gave a presentation entitled, 'Research Evidence on Low-fee Private Schooling: evolution of the sector', on 27 October 2017, in Tokyo, Japan.

Kanina Blanchard received the Margaret Haughey Dissertation Award from the Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration (CASEA) at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) in May 2017. This award is given to the best MA thesis in the area of educational administration and leadership completed at a Canadian university during the previous year (2016). The purpose of the award is to recognize superior research and writing by master’s degree students working in the area of educational administration and leadership. Kanina's dissertation was entitled Improving the Education of Leaders: An Exploratory Case Study in an Undergraduate Business Leadership Course Focused on Gender. Kanina is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies. Congratulations Kanina!

Dr. Peter Jaffe, academic director at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children, reports that the bulk of domestic homicides are preceded by more than a dozen identified risk factors that are known to people close to the victims.

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, was invited to publish a review of the World Bank's 2018 World Development Report, 'Learning to Realize Education's Potential'. She had earlier been invited to the World Bank for informal consultations on the Report on the issue of private schooling in developing countries. Her review, 'The World Bank's 2018 World Development Report on Education: a sceptic's review', was published on 18 October on From Poverty to Power by Oxfam's Strategic Adivser, Duncan Green.

We welcome Gerald (Gerry) Rucchin to the Faculty of Education. Gerry joins us as our new Communications and Marketing Officer in the IMPACT office.

Drs. Claire Crooks and Karen Bax have just been honored by Western Student Experience with the 2017 Western Leadership Wellness Award for their outstanding contribution to promoting the mental health of their students within their daily work at Western.

Congratulations to Melissa Coyne-Foresi who has been selected as the 2017 Fall recipient of the W.A. Townshend Gold Medal in Education.
The W.A. Townshend Gold Medal in Education is in honour of the Late Bishop Townshend of London, Ontario, and is awarded at each convocation to an MA student who has achieved the highest academic standing in his/her program of study.
Melissa’s research is titled, A Mixed Methods Exploration of Benefits for Youth Mentors in an Indigenous High School Peer Mentoring Program.

Congratulations to our doctoral student, Jenna Lorusso, as the recipient of a very distinguished award. The Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy SIG Best Paper for an Early Career Researcher as presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2017, supported by Routledge.

The New International Research Networks Award program is closed for applications for 2017. Program announcements for the next cycle will be sent in early 2018.

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, delivered the keynote address entitled, 'Education, Privatisation, and Mobilising Frames in the Global South', at the Global Meeting of the Privatisation in Education and Human Rights Consortium held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 7 September 2017.

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, was interviewed for the influential Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland on her research on low-fee private schooling in developing countries. The article asks, 'Are private schools the answer in poor countries', and appears in the August 2017 issue.

Welcome to Julie Birkle! Julie brings her tremendous knowledge, skills, and competence to her new permanent role as Facilities and Financial administrator in the Dean’s Office. In her new position, Julie will oversee travel and expense reviews and the building coordination role.

Please welcome Dr. Sonia Farem and Jen Heidenheim, and Meghan Kines to the Faculty of Education Research Office. Both Sonia and Jen has joined the Reseach Office. Sonia is our new Research Officer and Jen has joined the office as the Administrative Assistant. Meghan is our new Student Recruitment Coordinator.

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, presented a paper entitled, 'Beyond Access: silent exclusion and meaningful access in government and private schools in India', at the 2017 UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development, held in Oxford, UK, 5-7 September 2017.

Dr. Pam Bishop, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Associate Professor, Educational Leadership, has recently been awarded the distinguished 2017 Willower Award of Excellence from the Consortium for the Study of Leadership and Ethics in Education (which is part of the University Council of Education Administration).
The award is called the Willower Award of Excellence in honour of Don Willower from Penn State, who was one of the earliest participants and sponsors of the center's work. The list of recipients since 1996 includes many world class scholars.
This year’s selection committee described Pam as "an acknowledged scholar and expert in the area of Values and Leadership, who is highly accomplished in her research and advocacy for social justice and leadership of secondary schools in disadvantaged communities."

Dr. Frank Boers, currently an Associate Professor in the School of Linguistics and Applied Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, will join us as a Professor in the area of Applied Linguistics effective this spring (2018). Dr. Boers completed his PhD in Linguistics at the University of Antwerp and has since achieved international recognition for his research in second language acquisition and pedagogy, memory, and language awareness.

Dr. Jun Li, who currently serves as Deputy Director and Associate Professor, Education Policy Unit, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, will join us as a Professor, Educational Leadership effective January 2018. Members of our Educational Leadership group are excited to have a scholar of Dr. Li’s achievements join their area.

Congratulations to Dr. Colin King who has been appointed to Associate Professor and Director of the Child and Youth Development Clinic, Faculty of Education.

Congratulations to Marisa Tippett who has been appointed as Acting Library Director for Education and will assume this responsibility on Sept. 5th.

Congratulations to Dr Wayne Martino, Alicia Lapointe (PhD Candidate), Bill Tucker, and Dr Catherine Zeisner who have won the 2017 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from our students.

Congratulations to Jane Edwards, Lisa Floyd, and Laura Lockhart who had won the 2016 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from our students (we did not have a ceremony last year).

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, appeared as Discussant on the panel, “Privatization, the State, and Education in South Asia” March 16 at the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies in Toronto

Professor Stuart Webb was selected as a winner of the Faculty Scholar Awards at Western. The award recognizes scholarly achievements of faculty members who have maintained an excellent record in teaching and research.

International Office program coordinator Carolyn Wilson was invited to attend and present at UNESCO’s Week for Peace March 6 to discuss the role of education in peace and sustainable development around the world

Dr. Prachi Srivastava, Associate Professor, was invited to the World Bank Feb. 22 to debate the use of low-cost private schools in helping achieve quality education in Africa. The debate was part of the World Bank's Africa Knowledge Fest 2017 in Washington, DC